E is Three!

What?! E is three today. Impossible. I don't believe you.

It's true??

"What HAP-pend?" as E himself would say.

E is becoming such a little man. He's a riot every day. We never know what loving or funny or creative thing is coming next. I know that every parent feels this way when their first kiddo hits the explosion of personality development that constitutes the toddler years...but HOLY MOLEY...it's really, really amazing.

He's such a sweet and caring little guy. He's already speaking for his sister ("Daddy, she wants to go on a walk" or "Daddy, she wants to play with her tea set") and hugs her when she's crying -- so tight that it often makes her even more upset. If she's having an especially rough time, he'll decide to sing her "Rock a-BYE BAY-BEEE." His heart is always in the right place.  Most nights he asks, "Mommy how was your day?" as we're sitting around the dinner table. Recently, one of the dogs had a little rash and now E asks the dog every day, "Are you doing ok today, Cody? Is your rash a little bit better?"

And he blows us away with how much he understands. I now have to be very careful of...ummm...certain words because he'll not only repeat them, but use them in proper context. Plus, he definitely knows more about cars than I do. And planes. And rockets. And...suffice to say, I've got a lot of research to do if I'm going to stay ahead of his line of questioning.

The guy remembers everything, too. Yesterday, he was talking about jeeping and he told me about the one time yesterday (it was actually last May, but to him all things past are dubbed 'yesterday') he went jeeping and he kept getting muddier and muddier. Which was entirely true and again, nearly a year ago...when he had just turned two.

The thing that astounds us the most about E has nothing to do with him, but about what he does to us: He makes us better people. From the little things like how can we not add 'please' to the end of simple requests when we ask him to do so? Or how can we throw 'tantrums' or be whiny when he has to go into time out if he does so? To the bigger, intangible things: He has provided us hours of conversation.  He has given us a purpose and a reason for life beyond anything we imagined before. He has given us more love -- and worry -- than we thought possible. He has filled our lives and, more than any other influence, has shaped us into the people we are today.

And for that, we'll forever be in his debt.

As impossible as that sounds.   

Finally, here's a slideshow that we put together capturing the year that was E being two. Amazing to see how much has happened and how much he's grown.